Orange AFCON South Africa Tournament

Cairo – Egypt, Jan 15, 2013: AFCON, The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has concluded a milestone Public Transport agreement for fans with CAF and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 29th Edition of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations SOUTH AFRICA 2013.

The transport agreement is for the provision of free train services within metropolitan cities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal for fans with a valid match ticket as well as journalists and other officials carrying accreditation from the Orange AFCON 2013 LOC.

In Gauteng, PRASA will make available 20 dedicated trains which will ferry passengers from Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto and Vereeniging to Nasrec Station. This service will be for the opening and the final match of the tournament.

For KwaZulu-Natal soccer fans will have 26 dedicated trains transporting them from surrounding townships such as uMlazi and KwaMashu, directly to Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Each train has the capacity to carry up to 2000 passengers and the trains will move more than 40,000 soccer fans directly to the stadia.

Two long distance dedicated trains will be made available for fans travelling from Gauteng to Mbombela at a fee to be determined by PRASA.

These shuttle services will run from 21st January to 6 th February.

In the Eastern Cape, a return bus ticket can be purchased at Computicket, at any TRANSLUX sales office throughout the country or on the TRANSLUX website, which is www.translux.co.za

The AFCON LOC CEO, Mr. Mvuzo Mbebe, said: “This milestone agreement with PRASA is a significant step in ensuring that we reach our goal of filling the stadia. The public transport system provided by PRASA will address the majority of the soccer fans who otherwise would have had challenges reaching the stadiums and getting back home. Again, this agreement is indicative of a public private partnership and I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to PRASA for being a model corporate citizen. PRASA has responded to our call for a transport solution that is efficient and is able to deliver thousands of fans straight to the stadium”.

PRASA Group CEO Mr Lucky Montana added: “We are delighted as PRASA to be part of this very important tournament. Our mandate is to provide a reliable and efficient public transport system. We have supported soccer for a very long time and we will in future continue to do so. As a further incentive to our commuters, PRASA will also give a 40% discount on a monthly ticket to commuters who purchase match tickets during the tournament. The discounted train ticket will be redeemable in February.”

The Secretary General of CAF, Mr. Hicham El Amrani, expressed his excitement at the occasion of the announcement of the milestone agreement between PRASA, CAF and the LOC when he said: “We are delighted to be here today and mainly for the number one reason: the Fans, allowing them to celebrate and be part of the biggest tournament on the continent. With this public transport solution we can look forward to a marked in increase in the ticket sales. Already tickets made available for sales to the Opening Game are sold out and CAF and the LOC will release an additional 3,000 tickets to the public. We are looking forward to what would be an exciting tournament starting this Saturday”.

The Orange Africa Cup of Nations SOUTH AFRICA 2013 takes place between 19 January till 10 February 2013. —- CAF